Plan for medical waste incinerator stirs opposition in Live Oak

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Sep 28, 2013 at 6:51 PM

Plans for a medical waste incinerator in Suwannee County have stirred community concern and opposition.

By Christopher CurryStaff writer

Plans for a medical waste incinerator in Suwannee County have stirred community concern and opposition.Integrated Waste Management Systems, a Pennsylvania-based company that formed last year, plans to build a facility of as many as four incinerators capable of burning a total of 120 tons a day of medical and infectious waste.The company is eyeing a 25-acre property in Live Oak at 175th Road and 50th Street. That is within an area the governor and Suwannee County have designated as an industrial "catalyst" site.Over some public opposition in July, the Suwannee County Commission unanimously voted to allow industrial uses by right on that catalyst property, which also includes the site of the Klausner Lumber One sawmill.The by-right allowance means a business such as the incinerator would receive a special exception or special-use permit to locate in the designated economic development catalyst area without a public hearing and commission vote.That is a point of contention for opponents of the project."Their logic is that all this is industrial so we don't have to vet everything going in there," said Suwannee County resident Lori McCraney, who started a Facebook page Suwannee County Says No to Toxic Waste. "I am of the impression that they are trying to move this thing very quickly and very quietly to get this facility through before the community really has time to react to it."The community did have an opportunity to gather information and offer feedback at a town hall meeting on Sept. 19. A crowd estimated in excess of 150 turned out, said residents who attended.One of the opponents is Donna Ellis, a retiree who said she moved from the Orlando area to Live Oak about nine years ago for the rural setting and the environment. She lives about two miles from the proposed site.Ellis said she had concerns about the environmental impact of the sawmill, which is projected to produce about 350 jobs. Now, Ellis said that "adding this toxic medical waste incinerator is sort of like adding insult to injury.""I realize we need progress, but we don't need dirty industry," Ellis said. "There are many other industries that could bring jobs."While there has been no discussion of the incinerator at a County Commission meeting, Commissioner Clyde Fleming said representatives of Integrated Waste Management Systems have met with commissioners on an individual basis."We have been in discussion with them," Fleming said. "I can tell you I am satisfied with the information they have given me. I feel it would be a good thing for the county."Fleming said he expects the commission will have public deliberation on the project if and when the company comes forward with an offer to purchase county-owned property at the catalyst site.Fleming said projections are that the incinerator would create in the range of 60 to 100 jobs.Integrated Waste Management Systems has received its final air permit from the state. That permit set emissions standards for pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, dioxins, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, lead, cadmium and mercury.Before eyeing Suwannee County, the company first attempted to locate in Baker County but hit opposition.Allison Broughton, who fought the incinerator in Baker County, is also part of the opposition in Suwannee County. She said her concerns focus on air emissions and other types of pollution.Integrated Waste Management Systems President Marvin Jay Barry and the company's public relations consultant Alberta Hipps could not be reached for comment for this article. In an interview published in the Suwannee Democrat on Sept. 9, Barry said the facility would plan to take in waste from hospitals, including Department of Veterans Affairs facilities, and other medical offices within a radius of about 500 miles.In that interview with the Suwannee Democrat, company representatives said material burned at the facility could include needles, blood samples, pathological waste, chemo waste, gowns, rubber gloves, saline bags and other waste that facilities may not dispose of elsewhere under state law. That would include amputated body parts and human tissue, company representatives said.

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